Guardian (U.K.) Allows Citizen Journalists to Report on Bombings

By: Lesley Messer On Thursday, reports from London about the terrorist attacks in the tube and on a bus that killed at least 50 people horrified the world.

But the first-hand accounts, like those on Guardian (U.K.) assistant editor Neil McIntosh's news blog, allow readers to get a deeper understanding of what it was like to live through the ordeal. In the spirit of citizen journalism, of which the Guardian is one of the leading advocates, McIntosh invited readers to submit their eye-witness accounts.

Jo Herbert wrote that she was in the tube at the time of the bombings. She was stuck underground for over 30 minutes until people smashed through the windows and walked up the tunnel to the station.

"I truly thought I was going to die and was just hoping it would be from smoke inhalation and not fire," she wrote. "I started to walk down Euston Road (my face and clothes were black) towards work and all of a sudden there was another huge bang and people started running up the road in the opposite direction -- I now realize this must have been one of the buses exploding."

Rob Williams wrote that he feels lucky that he works in a part of the city that was not attacked. Nevertheless, his fear has become palpable.

"My view of the world as I sit at my desk is one of a deathly silence, punctuated by a blur of white emergency vehicles and piercing sirens," he wrote. "We have been asked to shut our windows and I am wondering if the Home Office bomb curtains that stand between myself and a possible window blast will be able to hold out if my building were to be targeted."

Chris Morrish wrote that he too feels fortunate, but because he narrowly avoided tragedy. He said that for the last ten months, he has taken the Metropolitan Line to Aldgate -- the site of one of the blasts.

However, yesterday, after noticing a 6-minute delay for the tube, he decided to walk.

"This is only the second time in ten months that I've done this and I have no idea why I did it today," he wrote. "I would almost certainly have been at Aldgate at 8:49. My thoughts are with the people who were not so lucky."